A METAANALYSIS OF THE RELATIVE SENSITIVITY OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING-TESTS

The National Institute of Mental Health recently formed a committee of experts which published a proposal for a lengthy neuropsychological t est battery judged most apt to detect diffuse brain damage while cover ing a wide range of cognitive abilities. The purposes of the present s tudy were (1) to assemble empirical evidence of the existence of stati stically significantly sensitive screening tests across an equivalentl y wide range of functional domains, and (2) to present this evidence s ystematically, in such a manner as to help clinicians select subsets o f screening tests manifesting greatest sensitivity to diffuse brain da mage. It was found that in certain functional domains (speed of proces sing, problem solving, executive functions), marked differences in sen sitivity occured. Brief tests just as sensitive as time-consuming test s were also identified. The reader is cautioned about possible extrane ous sources of the differences obtained (test and group selection bias , test reliability, test difficulty, procedural effects, Type I error) . Nevertheless, it was concluded that a brief highly sensitive and fun ctionally wide-ranging neuropsychological test battery for screening c ases of putative diffuse brain dysfunction can be assembled.